foreseeable future
“There’s been a significant shift online because of the sales tax savings,” he said. “Consumers see it as instant discount and most online retailers are delivering for free. That puts Sears and other land-based retailers at a significant disadvantage for the foreseeable future.” (Sears and Kmart close stores) CNN
We are still building malls here in Iowa. Such momentum will well overshoot the reversal to on-line shopping with a 15% advance in on-line sales this holiday period over last. Foreseeable mall vacancies will only add to the malaise of suburban living. Unlit and vacant, huge mall parking lots separate people.
Re-congregation into closer proximity is a strategy advanced in a book by David Owen; Green Metropolis, why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability. Shopping proximity and walk able neighborhoods are also exemplified in Iowa. Classical small – not mall – downtowns provide experiences that make shopping a communal activity.
These small town downtowns are also havens for independent bookstores. It could be that libraries and bookstores are useful identifiers of sustainable enclaves. The oddity of walking to a point of connectivity is itself an indicator of how disconnected we have become.
unlinked
“Yes, Kobo is apparently sabotaging publishers’ epubs by including their own css and a javascript file and forcing the use of their (horrible on any reader other than a kobo, as you discovered) styles rather than the original ones. The resulting files are no longer valid epub files in addition to the various other problems since these added files are “hidden” (not referenced in the content.ofp file).”
Storage and display are fused together in a paper book. Screen books, on the other hand, disengage persistence and display. This unlinking compounds delivery scenarios, disrupts editorial control, disturbs typographic refinement and multiplies the separated display and storage costs. Legibility is negotiable.
Many annoyances and frustrations with e-books derive from this disengagement. Proofing is defaulted to the crowd since reflexive correcting between separated served and displayed representations is too problematic. Proof reading is shifted from up-stream in traditional print, to way down-stream. Meanwhile multiple storage formats are variously incompatible with various display devices.
native and immigrants
“Digital Natives are those who grew up with digital technology from birth, whereas digital Immigrants are those who were already socialized in pre-digital ways when digital technology arrived on the scene.” Introduction to an exhibit on digital libraries, University of Iowa.
Set aside that all socialization is now supported by digital technology, the stated distinction of natives and immigrants can be revised. Culturally the natives are intruded upon while immigrants intrude. This semantic revision also has a bit of charm in context with interplay of paper and screen books and print and on-line libraries. Whatever the intrusive digital revolution will displace of the culture of the paper book there may still remain some useful lessons from the aborigines.
One outcome of two-way exchange could be the dawning of a fundamental interdependence of the paper and screen book. As each reveals exclusive affordances a reflexive force of definition will emerge to more responsibly allocate roles for research and transmission. Such an epiphany of shared print and screen delivery modes and shared function of embodied and disembodied content can define the post-digital library and the larger future of the book.